This Month´s Topic: Sweden´s Environmental Leadership

I recently heard that Sweden is the greenest country in the world. Is this true and, if so, by what standards? And where does the U.S. rank?

- Raul Swain, New York, NY

It’s true that Sweden came
out on top in the recently released ranking of 60 countries according to
sustainability by consulting firm Dual Citizen Inc. in its fourth
annual Global Green Economy Index (GGEI). Norway, Costa Rica, Germany
and Denmark rounded out the top five. The rankings take into account a
wide range of economic indicators and datasets regarding leadership on
climate change, encouragement of efficiency sectors, market facilitation
and investing in green technology and sustainability, and management of
ecosystems and natural capital.

Sweden’s
first place finish reflects the Swedes’ ongoing commitment to climate
change mitigation and sustainability policies and practices. The country
is a leader in organic agriculture and renewable energy as well as per
capita investment in green technology and sustainability research.
Upwards of 75 percent of Swedes recycle their waste, while only four
percent of the country’s garbage goes to landfills. In fact, Sweden
imports garbage from other nations to burn as a renewable source of
energy.

On the climate
front, Sweden was one of the first countries in the world - going back
to 1991 - to put in place a heavy tax on fossil fuels
to encourage the development of greener sources of energy. Indeed, the
high price of gas there has notably boosted sales and consumption of
homegrown, renewable ethanol. Just a few decades ago Sweden derived 75
percent of its energy from fossil fuels, but is on track to shrink that
to 18 percent by 2020, with many Swedes clamoring for the country to
abandon fossil fuels entirely at that point. As if that wasn’t enough,
Sweden recently announced that it would pay a whopping $500 million over
the next four years into the United Nations’ Green Climate Fund, a pool
of money sourced from richer countries to help poorer ones transition
to a future less dependent on polluting fossil fuels.

The
United States didn’t fare so well in the GGEI, ranking just 28th
overall, just behind Rwanda and slightly ahead of Canada. Despite
leadership in green technology and e n v i r o n m e n t a l a w a r e n
e s s , Americans’ disproportionately large carbon footprint and
resistance to a national policy on climate change mitigation are hurdles
to the U.S. achieving a better ranking.

The
GGEI isn’t the only sustainability ranking of countries. The Yale
Center for Environmental Law & Policy and Columbia University’s
Center for
International Earth Science Information Network recently released their
2014 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), a similar but more expansive
ranking of 178 nations on environmental health and ecosystem vitality.
Switzerland topped that list, followed by Luxembourg, Australia,
Singapore and the Czech Republic. Sweden ranked 9th and the U.S. 33rd.

The
fact that global rankings like the GGEI and EPI exist shows without a
doubt that sustainability concerns are a global phenomenon, and that
people from Iceland to Australia (two highly ranked countries) realize
the importance of taking care of Mother Earth. Despite issuing different
rankings, both indices had a lot in common, with five countries
(Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Spain) making the top 10 list
of each. Another common conclusion was that the U.S. has much to do if
it hopes to be taken seriously among world leaders committed to
protecting the planet and our common future.